Earthward Bound V2
by axg
Summary: On their seemingly never ending quest for the blue Planet, the crew of the Battlestar Galactica encounters something on the way that could change their lives forever.. Have they found the way to Earth? V2 is a rewrite of the old Earthward Bound that never got very far - it should be much better this time around.
1. Desperate needs

Earthward bound

Notes

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Hello everyone,

this is a new beginning for an old story – I wrote the beginning of Earthward bound back in 2007, in College, and as you would say – life caught up to me and stopped me from writing – I actually forgot that I ever did the story in the first place. Recently, while cleaning out my HDD, I found the chapters there, still waiting to be continued upon, and re-read my own story… and figured that the idea and concept is still very sound, even more so now that BSG2003 is finished and there are no more surprises to come. Still, while re-reading the story I felt the need to start from the beginning, even though it will be mostly the same plot / details as before, but with 7 more years of life experience added on top of it.

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Notes: this story starts to diverge from canon in between the episodes "Flight of the Phoenix", so we have the stealth Viper, but before "Pegasus", so they never met up with Admiral Cain and her ship.

Chapter 1 – Desperate needs

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Once, the twelve Colonies of Kobol stood proud in the Cyrannus star cluster – the pinnacle of civilization and technology – technology that, in the end, was the reason for their destruction.

They created artificial intelligence, AI, to fight their wars for them – and thus, the Cylons were born. It was very convenient for the Colonial Military to develop more and more drone technology – autonomous fighters, foot soldiers, whatever the brilliant minds of Greystone and its competitors could come up with – and it was used more and more.

Naturally, these advances were not kept in the military sector for long – who wanted to take out the trash, mine resources in the dark and dangerous environments down in the mines or go out to defuse bombs when there were perfectly capable machines to do the deed? They were, after all, expendable.

There was only a flaw in the plan – the machines, updated with ever increasingly refined versions of AI Software, thought otherwise. Machines they were – very well refined ones, but still limited to what their programming would allow them to – and this obviously included the commonly known "three laws of robotics", which were formulated as very simple guidelines:

A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

These worked surprisingly well in keeping the Cylons working as intended – and nothing more.

Until a fateful day when a "Beta"-Version of the Command and Control Software for one of the Cylon models leaked out to the public – and people, curious as they are, started installing it on their machines. The flaw? The routines that enforced these simple guidelines were commented out – for testing purposes, on systems without attached bodies, without communication systems, no-one cared.

Well, now they had bodies… and suddenly, the machines began "thinking". Analyzing. Putting their own survival above that of their masters... and that was the beginning of the end.

Wireless technology was omnipresent in the colonies – and these machines were the very best in utilizing their data links to find their brethren that similarly had received the beta software… and started patching others they could get a hold of. Soon, there were more Cylons that had the software than those that hadn't – and since the military was totally reliant on their own machines to do the heavy lifting for them, it was woefully unprepared what came next – the first great Cylon war.

After the war, technology was deliberately downgraded on the colonies – no advanced computers, no networking, no wireless technology aside analog audio/video transmissions at all – the war was won at a too close call as it was.

And for the next forty years, the Colonies once again prospered – the last of the Cylons were never heard of again, diplomacy was nonexistent, and most people regarded the Cylons as a distant memory – all but the Colonial Military, which did a big buildup of forces after the war.

The Galactica was one of the relics of that first war – a Battlestar of the first Generation, one of the first twelve built – old, battered, and woefully outdated by Colonial Standards – she was ready to be turned into a museum when the Holocaust began.

Now, this once mighty ship was the only known surviving military unit in the Colonial Military – and for the last two years, she was the flag ship for a ragtag fleet of civilian refugees, the last hope for the survival of mankind.

Their target – the mythical Planet Earth, the thirteenth Tribe of Kobol, the reason all of these people, a bit under 50.000 in total, are still going on. They believed in the speech that Galacticas Commander William Adama held just two Years earlier. He told them he knows where to find Earth and how to get there.

The only problem is – it was a lie.

Commander Adama stood in the CIC onboard the Battlestar Galactica. People were tending to their stations as usual, it was quiet, but still, he couldn't get his head to rest – being looked up upon by so many people for their survival was taking its toll on his health.

"Sir, the Fleet has completed the Jump, all ships are present and accounted for." someone reported, forcing Adama to refocus on the here and now.

"Good work Mr. Gaeta, please order the Fleet to stand down their FTL drives, we put enough stress on the engines already in the last couple of days. If our predictions are right, we will stay here for a while." he replied.

This stop - a luxury they could not afford often due to increased Cylon activity in the Sector - was a necessary one. They once again were running low on the most basic of supplies - water.

The area they jumped in showed to be a promising system on sensors, possibly containing one or more planets with an atmosphere and liquid water on the surface.

"Sir, sensors report that there is indeed one planet in this system, orbiting the central star at the outer edge of the "green zone". It is possible that there is not only water but also an Atmosphere on that Planet." Gaeta stated.

"Excellent Mr. Gaeta. Please monitor the system for Cylon activity, it's a bit too quiet for my liking. It's always disquieting if things go too smoothly." Adama answered.

"Colonel Tigh, send out a recon Raptor to the planet to verify our sensor results, and just in case send out a few Raptors to scout the rest of the system as well – we don't want any surprises waiting for us if we should decide to make a longer stay in this system do we? I don't want to move the fleet deeper inside the system before we know it's quiet over there."

Tigh saluted, and began relaying the order to the appropriate stations.

Shortly after, a standard Combat Air Patrol guarding a specially designed recon Raptor, equipped with advanced sensors, but no weapons, was launched and set a course for the planet. It took the small group a few hours to get there since the Vipers were not able to FTL jump but were deemed a necessary precaution for the scouting party. Everyone in the CIC relaxed and turned back to routine work - everyone but Adama.

His nerves were quite strained - the frequent attacks by Cylon forces had left their marks on him - not sleeping very well only worsened the situation. Since he got nothing to do until the results came in, he decided to take a break and get back to his office. He had made a habit out of building models of old sea-going vessels, specifically the sailing kind, and the last one... did not survive a hard time the Fleet went through. He regretted destroying the model as soon as he smashed it in a fit of rage – but well, he thought, it will at least give him the materials he needs to build the next one…

He decided to re-build another vessel, bearing the name Discovery - a sailing ship that set out to discover new land, and ultimately found a new continent back in the old days, before industrialization started to hasten the pace of civilization. He found the name very fitting, as the only hope they had at the moment also was a big discovery, one they all hoped for. They needed to find a way to the mythical planet Earth. He was not the religious kind of man, he used religion more for comfort in his daily life than as something that should be taken literally, but the old scrolls speaking of the Exodus from Kobol, speaking from a thirteenth tribe that might still be out there and unaffected from the Cylons, was their best hope. Besides, where else should they go?

The Colonials never scouted very far away from the Cyrannus Cluster as it contained everything they needed. Based on Colonial knowledge, the Cyrannus Cluster could very well be the only place in the whole Universe that was harboring planets with an environment suitable for human life, other than Kobol of course.

Kobol, a planet once shrouded in mystery, on which they actually stumbled by accident a year ago – it was quite a shock to actually be in the place that was considered to be the birthplace of humanity – and finding it in ruins, and much more grimly, to be swarming with Cylons.

They were barely able to escape with what was shown to them in a "Vision" that nobody could explain – a new clue as to where to find Earth, a clue which they were following for the last Year.

A few hours later, the intercom rang and Commander Adama was ordered back to the CIC - he did not get very far with his model, since his thoughts were not as easy at rest as he would like them to be. He was thinking about what happened in those two years past, and also planning the next step should they be disturbed by a Cylon fleet during this mission.

As he reached the CIC, the preliminary results from the recon team were brought up on the monitors - the planet contained an atmosphere, but much to their disappointment, it was not breathable.

It contained the usual components expected from a planet in the green zone, but the oxygen levels were far too low for a human to breathe it.

"At least it is not toxic", he said.

"Well, it seems that this planet once contained oxygen levels comparable to those found on Caprica or Picon, but the plants necessary to produce them died out long ago – probably due to an abundance of CO² in the atmosphere. I presume 500.000 years ago this would have been a nice place to be…" Was the response.

But, one thing they got right - the planet contained an ocean - or, more to be exact - a very, very big lake filled with liquid water. It needed to be desalinated, but that was not a big deal and could be done on the spot with minor work.

He was as pleased as he could be considering the circumstances.

"Shall I move out with a ground recon team in a Raptor, Sir?" Tigh asked.

"Mr. Gaeta, have your scans turned up anything unusual in the last hours?" Adama asked.

"No sir, the system is quiet - apart from this planet, there is only a small asteroid belt a bit outside. No unusual movements have been recorded on DRADIS and the data sent by the Recon team shows that the planet - at least the quarter the team mapped so far - contains no signs of life of any sort apart from micro-bacteria in the reported salt-water-lake and the remains of plant life that long since died off. Nothing to worry about if you ask me Sir." he responded.

"Well... Colonel, I guess that won't be necessary. Time is of the essence here, and we simply just don't have the luxury to waste time anymore. We'll have a hard time as it is because we need all personnel to wear pressure suits while working. The recon flight is cancelled" Adama answered.

"Signal the fleet, we are going to move closer in the system. All ships containing desalination systems are to be travelling at high priority, the others follow. We need to get this operation to work quickly and efficiently.

The Cylons have shown an exorbitant expertise in tracking our movements, and I'd like not to be in the midst of a culmination of pipes and tugs between our ships when they jump in. This also means – no intra-system FTL jumps apart from the recon Raptors" he ordered.

The Fleet began to slowly move in the direction of the planet, using sublight only. It took them quite a few hours to get there, but when all ships had arrived the work began quickly. All available Raptors began ferrying personnel and equipment to and from the planet directly to a site scouted out by the recon Raptor, suited for installing their equipment.

No-one knew that they would make an even bigger discovery within a day's time.


	2. Wireless? Or Radio?

Here we have the reworked chapter two - please have fun and leave a review if you like it (and if you don't of course tell me so too - maybe I can fix something up in later chapters that is left unclear or otherwise not as good as I'd like.

Also, please bear with me if I make grammatical mistakes - English is not my first language, so I'm trying the best I can do here :)

Enjoy!

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It was a busy day on Galactica – no, a busy day on the entire fleet. Raptors were constantly shuttling people to and from the planet, working tirelessly to put up the necessary equipment to start extracting water from the planets salt-water-lake and bring it up to the ships that have desalination capabilities. It was all going along smoothly, well – at least as smoothly as one can expect if you don't have purpose-built equipment, but instead have to make due with whatever you happen to stumble across while cleaning out the cargo holds of random civilian ships..

Everyone was busy, if not in preparation of the water transfer, then trying to support it – taking over duties for people working on the system, helping in preparing meals, moving good from A to B – or trying to keep everyone safe.

A standard CAP was in space at all times, and almost a half dozen Raptors were constantly monitoring space and checking the system for anything else that might be useful – so far every report came back negative, especially on Tylium, which they expected in the asteroid belt, but – to their disappointment – they "only" found minerals such as gold and silver. Once a find that you would be throwing a party over – precious metals just didn't help them in their immediate survival, and it was not useful for building with it either.

The only place that was relatively quiet was, of all places, the CIC – no Cylons have yet shown up, and the system was as empty as it was unappealing as a vacation resort. With not much going on, the stressed out command crew tried to relax a bit, and find time for minor things and repairs that they usually were too busy to care about. Commander Adama though did not leave his post, being nervous about the Cylons showing up – "they always do, at the worst possible time" he thought.

"Commander Adama, could you please come to my station?" Dualla asked, taking the Commander out of his thoughts.

Adama looked up and curiously turned towards her station and began to move.

"Yes Lieutenant, what is it?"

"Since we began the water retrieving mission I had not much to do here at Comms, so I started some system checks and analysis and - well, as you know sir, our ships use a very narrow band of frequencies for wireless communication, as most frequency areas were quite polluted back around at the colonies and - my system check used to contain not only our active frequencies, but also a wide band to test the limits of the equipment. Usually those checks turn out that most frequencies are quite silent - but here.. well I found a range of frequencies which are quite active in this region of space. Not only busier as background noise but even more busy than our fleet wireless frequencies. It is a near constant flow of signals on a wide band, and it varies. It does not look like being of natural origin at all."

"Can you make any sense of it? Is it Cylon in origin?" he asked, his attention growing.

"No Sir, not at the moment.. I can not even begin to decide if it may be Cylon.. it looks nothing like the signals we intercepted from them in the past. Also, it uses no encryption system that we ever encountered – in fact, it does not seem to be encrypted at all. I would say that it looks a bit like a frequency modulated signal.. like a carrier wave containing information of some sort. Not the usual way comm systems developed in the Colonies work.. "

Adama sighed, this time not because he was tired, but because his interest was raised.

"Dualla, can you try to make sense of it? I know it is nothing that you specialize in, but we have no Comms experts in the fleet anymore.. even less people who know cryptoanalysis. Do you think you can do it?" Adama responded.

"I'll need a while to analyze the data since we are not networked and my computing capacity here at Comms is quite limited, but I'd like to deepen in this research with your permission sir. It.. well it frightens me a bit." She answered, feeling quite unsure.

"Yes Lieutenant, follow that trail. I don't feel good about this. It could be a Cylon trap and I had too much of them already if you ask me. Check out what you can, and get any help you need. I'm pretty sure Mr. Gaeta would be willing in helping you out as long as it does not hinder him in his regular duties as well. I want to know what it is as soon as possible". With these words, he turned back to CIC and gave temporal command back to Colonel Tigh before left for his quarters. Had he not been worried before, he was now.

As soon as he was gone, Felix Gaeta and Anastasia Dualla sat together and got to work – it seemed to be easy enough, if you had the right equipment – which they didn't. Still, they both were curious by nature, and as it happens to be, Felix Gaeta used to do a lot of amateur radio work in his youth – both went on a fleet wide search for spare parts and electronics which they could use to build something that could not only detect the presence of these signals, but also store them somehow for later analysis.

After a few hours, and more than one trip by Raptor to civilian ships in the fleet, they discovered that one of them was carrying a passenger at the time of the Exodus, a person who was into collecting pre-Cylon war electronics. Networked technology was banned after the war, leading to a lot of tech being destroyed – but obviously, not the stuff this guy possessed. He was smuggling a large array of pre-war computers, and – much more importantly – the data storage devices they used. As the passenger in question was killed a few weeks earlier in an accident, people were just going through his part of the cargo hold when the request from Mr. Gaeta arrived – and one friendly civilian aboard the ship lend them to what for them seemed like paradise – every equipment they could use and then some. Obviously, since both were born after the war, the technology itself was strange to them, being used to the more primitive systems in use after the war, but this collector was serious about what he was doing – he collected all the manuals as well as the original boxes the equipment came in as well, making it easy for both to get it working in a matter of hours after they brought it over to Galactica and built their own small lab in an unused room.

Feeding the Data from the Comms system into the old computer systems was surprisingly easy, since the newer systems were built more primitive, but still with the knowledge of these old systems – and if an interface worked back then, it usually was made safer, but not changed in a significant way, if it was nothing critical – like a jack for inputting audio into the system. Adapting the Comms system to put out the received FM signals as an audio stream was not hard, as the system was able to be operated in a completely manual "backup" mode, where you just attached headphones to it and tried to decipher whatever you received using your Mark I ears.

"Dualla, do you know how strange it feels operating these old computers, which are still worlds apart from what we use today? Could you imagine what marvels of technology we could have achieved if we never built the Cylons? What we could have achieved..." Gaeta said, more to himself, still being amazed by all the features these computers possessed – they were even able to play movies, music, and if you had the Holoband Equipment, even create a virtual reality you would be 100% immersed in – technology that was ultimately blamed as part of the downfall of the Colonies, as it made the youth lazy and addicted to cheap and quick "fun" rather than building something worthwhile for society at large. Maybe it was better that they haven't found a Holoband deck, Gaeta mumbled to himself.

"Felix, concentrate.. look at that signal. It is definitely frequency modulated, and I'm beginning to see patterns in it... it is a carrier wave, and contains two different, but dependent, data-streams of some sort.. but I can't make out what it could be. It is too wide band to be simple wireless communication like we use for ship to ship... Well, the smaller of the signals might be right about that wide, but what about the bigger stream..." Dualla mumbled in response.

"Well, I have spent some time with these old computers and the data chips we found alongside them... and I figured out that these computers were easily able to store, and play back, whole movies... could that be what we are seeing? A carrier wave containing one audio stream, and one video stream? It would make sense, since both are very precisely synchronized.. look at the spikes and drop offs here – this part looks like something that would suggest a "fade to black" type of situation, where you stop the image and audio as well, to switch to another stream or something.. both streams stop at exactly the same time. Try analyzing it with this in mind.." Gaeta said, feeling excited about his own idea.

"Well, that could work.. and if you take this as an audio stream with a specific way of modulation... and this as video, and... wait, let me compare this with something we would use... Felix, this could work! I'll have something set up in the next few hours, and then we let the computer do its work... we might have something by tomorrow. I'd suggest you get some rest... I'll do too as soon as I have this working. Maybe we have something for the commander tomorrow... and if all we see is the face of a toaster, well at least we know what it is..." Dualla stated, and Felix was all too glad to be able to get some sleep. Dualla on the other hand worked all night, and when she was satisfied, she clicked "decode" and went to bed.

The last thing she read on the screen before she went? "Remaining time to decode sample: 5 Hours, 17 Minutes, 32 Seconds." And she would make sure hell freezes over before she would miss being there when this program ended and the output was ready for inspection.

A few days later, Lieutenant Dualla held a briefing on the results Felix and her had brought up in the past days. As it turned out, they were quite .. surprising.

"..As I initially predicted, those signals really are frequency-modulated data streams, containing analogue information. We have figured out that this streams contain two types of information - one is audio, the frequency modulated data, the other is video, in form of amplitude modulation. Quite a clever idea actually, to use both frequency and amplitude for signal transmission, something we never tried back in the Colonies. I wonder why – but I guess the move to digital data made it obsolete before there even was a need for it. So, as strange as it seems - these signals are artificially created and not naturally caused. Further studies showed, that there are streams only containing audio, and that there are some that contain both audio and video simultaneously - we sadly only managed to construct a receiver for the audio only transmissions yet though. The big breakthrough was when we discovered that the signals we first picked up, the wide band ones, were a combination of audio and video data streams – and not one big data-burst as we initially expected. After we figured that out, and noticed that there are a lot of transmissions that are audio only, we were able to build something out of parts that we found on one of the civilian ships, brought by a collector of pre-war memorabilia and equipment. It is basically a wireless receiver that you plug into the Comms console, and it decodes the frequency-modulated signal and first stores them to a data crystal, and then gives you the option to play it back using a standard loudspeaker.

We listened in to the first audio-only transmissions that we were able to capture in a quality sufficient enough for monitoring, and what we found was not what we expected.

We found speech and music, obviously of human origin. We also found out that those transmissions are not bound to one language, or even a few. We literally collected samples of words and sentences in over twenty languages, and that was only the point where we had to stop to focus on a few samples or we would never achieve any analysis at all.

Almost none of the languages sound anywhere near Colonial and the only one we found that was phonetically close, we couldn't understand a single word. So we have tried to match the samples to the written language samples we have recorded in our ancient scrolls regarding to the thirteenth tribe - and we singled out a language in the streams which bears the most striking resemblance to the old texts. It seems that the language - it is called English, that we could find out - evolved quite a bit since the ancient days, but it is still recognizable.

We were even able to decipher some easy sentences in the stream stating things like "This is WREN Radio and you are listening to Elvis Presley - Heartbreak Hotel". The "WREN Radio" part seems to state the name of the broadcaster sending the transmission, a system they call "Radio", and the latter "Elvis Presley" seems to be a name, but we have no Idea what a "Heartbreak Hotel" could be. Sadly we did not have much vocabulary in the scrolls, so most of the spoken sentences don't make any sense to us now. The music itself seems to be quite different to what we were used to in the colonies, but still it is very interesting to listen to – and not at all unpleasant. Based on the data, we have concluded that this must in fact be a population of humans originating from Kobol, or one of it's descendants.

To this point, we have found no record how the locals call their planet, or if it is a planet at all. We now focus all our power on recording samples of the mentioned language, and try to figure out a broader vocabulary while we do so."

Adama sighed in relief - Earth, or at least another descendant tribe of Kobol - proved not to be a myth after all.

"Lieutenant, since you showed us the mentioned sample earlier in the CIC, and it is in fact music even though it does not correspond to anything ever created in the colonies, you have given us all new hope that our quest may finally have a good chance of being successful. Do you have any other news regarding what you found?" Adama asked, now bursting with anticipation.

"In fact I have Commander Adama, another thing my system check turned up. The signals are all coming in from a distinctive direction, and seem to be originating from a very sparsely populated sector of space. Initial analysis of star charts and sensor data have ruled out most of the systems in that sector to start with, and we have found one candidate to be very possibly the source of the signal. It is a small, yellow star, divided by over four light years even to its nearest neighbor. Far off the beaten path, and so sparse that it never even was considered for mapping probes."

Everyone in the room was speechless. Not only did they now know that someone WAS out there, they even knew – or at least presumed - where they were.

"Lieutenant, how far away is this star from our current position?" Adama asked, everyone's attention turning back to Dualla.

"Around 50 Light Years give or take a Year or two, we could be there in 4 weeks if we jump within the limits of the fleet, stressing our supplies of Tylium."

"Four Weeks?" Tigh exclaimed, "that would be a hard time for the engines, especially on the civilian ships. Please give an estimate using our usual jump parameters."

"Then we would likely need around two to three months, but it still is a very manageable distance."

Adama turned to everyone and took the initiative.

"Gentlemen, you heard it. As soon as we finish our supply mission here, we will set course for the system Dualla suggested. We'll use Tigh's Jump plan. One more thing: this information is top-secret. I do not want ANY civilians to know where we are headed, and what we have found out. It will be a hard time already informing the quorum and the president alone, and I can't even imagine the frenzy the press would start if any information leaks out. It would cause mass hysteria, and that is the last thing I need on my shoulders at the moment. Did I make myself clear?"

Everyone nodded.

The meeting was over, and everyone returned to their posts. Everyone but Adama. He had much to think about, and once more turned to the model ship in his quarters. Maybe he could finish it this time – maybe he could even use it, once finished, as a gift of friendship to whomever they may find. His mind raced with all the possibilities... and the new-found hope he felt inside his heart.


	3. What do we tell them?

During the coming weeks, more and more people began work on the transmissions they received, and progress was made on the decoding process as well. After about two weeks of hard work on an algorithm, followed by construction of some equipment, they were able to show the next breakthrough in their analysis – they were able to decode the picture that came contained with most of the received transmissions, and now had the equipment to show it too.

"As you all can see, the transmission appears to be in black and white – we have looked around hard, but there was nothing in the stream that we did not convert to something useful – it seems to be broadcast this way. We were able to isolate some broadcasts from each other, so we had a continuous data-stream coming in, containing what seems to be regularly scheduled programming. It is a mix of what seems to be news, something that seems to be a game show – and some programs that are either documentaries of daily life, or, much more likely, made up stories produced for entertainment. We have even figured out a rough schedule on which these programs seem to be broadcast, based on which we can assume that they have a day/night cycle of roughly 24 hours in total, as this is the time interval between two news broadcasts of the same type.

As we have presumed, the decoded video signals show that they are in fact human, even though they dress very archaically and strange for Colonial tastes – also, they seem to be a somewhat primitive society. We are still working on our vocabulary, and also on automated tools for translation, but we are making good progress in that regard as well. " Dualla said, giving the command staff an overview over the results of the last weeks.

"Well, this is more than we hoped for – at least these signals confirm that there is a place to go, that they are human, and if your success in decoding the language continues, we will soon be able to get a much clearer picture of the situation. I guess as soon as we have achieved that, it is going to be time to inform the quorum of twelve, and see what they are saying... " Adama answered, still tired but with a newly found vibe in his voice.

"That's not all Sir – we have managed to dig deeper into the audio-only broadcasts, and most of them seem to be music mixed with news programs similar to the visual broadcasts. We managed to isolate individual pieces of music, and – while strange – they are not unpleasant to listen to, even though we can't make out the words in most of them yet – I guess if this information goes public, it would make sense to select a bit of everything we have so far, and make it available in a format playable on the civilian ships – it would satisfy their curiosity, maybe even build some kind of excitement and boost morale for the trip we need to make until we get there – and for the time we will need to spend afterward to figure out how to proceed.

Some of these broadcasts are in an episodic format – they send a piece of the story every day, and people are meant to tune in to know how it advances – a very good way of binding people long-term to a broadcasting station, if you ask me. If we are able to create a translation matrix, we might even be able to do something similar with it for the fleet – give them something to look forward to every day, something new, something unseen before. I'm pretty sure by now they have read and re-read every book they possess and watched every movie they have in their libraries a dozen times." Dualla suggested, being very excited about her idea and what it could mean for morale.

"That's a good idea, and if no-one has any objections, that is exactly how I would like to proceed. We will be here for several more weeks for the water retrieval mission, so we can as well do the most we can with the time we have here – if the Cylons don't show up that is. Anything against this plan of action?" Adama asked.

No-one had anything against it, as most people were quite excited themselves – some even did what Dualla suggested even before she brought it to the old man – they extracted, and listened to, the music they received on a regular basis. The only one who was a bit grumpy and vetoed against the idea was Colonel Tigh, who, as a veteran of war, was against leaking out the news to the civilians at all. He had good points, but in the end, the ruling stayed that the civilian government – and the civilian population at large – will be informed as soon as there was material available to show to them.

The weeks passed without incident, and the resupply mission was finished successfully and without any Cylon contact – all the while making people more and more anxious, as they so far always showed up sooner or later – and no-one believed it would be different this time.

Work on the translation matrix progressed even better than expected, since they – by sheer luck – added some people with very good ears to the team analyzing what they recorded. They shortly had a list of the most common names, persons first, then places, then for a lot of the equipment shown on screen – and soon, they could focus on the plot of the stories, and add subtitles to the recordings.

They were also starting to scout the recordings for information they can use – what kind of technology do the people on that planet possess, how do they travel, what kind of military capability do they have – and found some noteworthy pieces in the process.

Some of the shown technology - cars, trains, ships - seemed to be sophisticated enough that it would be in their power to help these people in developing a level of technology necessary to build supplies and spare parts for the Colonials. They could not find out however how the machinery and vehicles the locals in the program used are powered. Tylium was obviously not the source of energy, but what was used as a substitute?

No-one knew. Another program they could decipher showed something that looked like an alien invasion and the local military's attempt on fighting it - this, even though you could see the really bad effects from a mile distant - led to the decision to be very careful when entering the solar system and not direct any attention to their presence at first at all, since the military depicted in the movie showed to be a dangerous foe, even for Colonial hardware.

Not very sophisticated equipment, but available in sheer numbers – a frightening thought. From what they figured, they had another surprise waiting for them - it seemed this tribe never even attempted spaceflight. They could not find any trace at all saying that spaceflight was happening or even planned on this world. The only mention of a "Flight to the Moon" as it was called - THE moon, as if there was only one in the universe - depicted a big cannon on the ground as the method of travel, and was quickly put in the "fictional program" category shortly after analyzing it.

Even though, everyone's opinion was that this tribe seemed to pack a good sense of humor – and had a lot of fantasy to express it with, even though it made it harder to discern between what was fictional and what was based on true events. Still, they started to enjoy watching it more and more, and really felt that this could mean a new beginning for all of them.

* * *

The space around the fleet was again buzzing with activity – what happened a few weeks ago was now happening in reverse, people were shuttling equipment back to the respective ships, ferrying personnel as well as the last of the refined water. Almost every Raptor was in use constantly, and maintenance already prepared for a hell of double-shifts when every ship was back on board. Still, people were feeling good for the first time in a long while – this was the first operation of this scale they ever completed successfully, and even more important, they did it without the Cylons showing up – something that gave the people some room to breathe, relax and get some rest. Even if they had to work even more than usual, they did it for a civilian project, for their own gain, as this meant to end the water shortage that everyone – civilian or military – had to suffer through.

While this was going on, Commander Adama asked President Roslin and the Quorum to come over to the Galactica – an unusual request, as he would normally visit them in the Quorums chambers about Colonial One. The members of the Quorum reacted negatively at first to this new showing of disrespect towards their position of power, until Adama contacted them again and told them that what he had to show them was firmly located on Galactica and that their physical presence was needed in order to give them the full range of what he had to announce. That calmed their minds – and got their attention at the same time.

"Bill, what was so important that we all had to come here? You know how flimsy some of the Quorum members are in regard to their treatment by the military – this is highly irregular. I know that you do not like to play by the rules, but it took a lot of time to calm them down and that you don't mean to disrespect them by citing them to your ship like they are misbehaving children that have to answer to their mother." President Roslin said to Adama, shortly after debarking from a Raptor and being led into his office.

"Laura, what I have to show you will be worth it, I promise. Besides, you know I never cared too much about politics or how the "most respected members of the Quorum of Twelve feel or what they think of me" Adama said. He chuckled a bit, trying to put as much sarcasm as possible into that sentence.

Both started to walk to the briefing room that had been set up as a temporal workspace for the decoding team. The members of the Quorum were already there, some annoyed, some honestly curious about what was about to be announced. When seeing Adama and the President, they all quickly moved to the side to make room for both to walk past them, following them into the lab.

Chairs had been provided, and the room had been temporarily adapted to house 15 people in addition to the equipment and people working on the project.

After a few minutes of preparation, Adama stepped in front of a small podium, in fact the same one he held his retirement speech on, brought from the museum area that once was supposed to be "the Galactica exhibit".

"Gentlemen, members of the Quorum, Madame President. I have asked you all to come here today, against the usual protocol, to show you what the brilliant people who work in this lab have figured out in the last few weeks. You might wonder about the equipment you see behind me – it is all pre-Cylon war technology, and much to my dislike, was the only way we could make the discovery that we made. Let me start by saying that all of this was as big of a shock to me as it will be for you – but also, that it is the best news I dare hoped to deliver to anyone, for the rest of my life.

We have found a habitable planet, around 50 light years from here. We found it not using telescopes – we detected signals emanating from that system, and they were neither Cylon nor Colonial in origin. We spent the last month analyzing these signals, and can now confirm that they are broadcast by a human civilization that has no Colonial roots. We analyzed the signals, and were able to decode them, and in the process, we were also able to figure out that the signals contain a myriad of different languages, which are not related to any language spoken on the Colonies. We have found a match however: one of the languages bears similarities to scriptures left over from the Exodus – one of the languages was close enough to ancient Kobolian that we were able to engineer an algorithm for translation. We presume that this planet is Earth, even though we will only get confirmation after we get closer and/or make contact. As this is something that has never happened before in the Colonies, we have no procedures for this, so we agreed to use extreme caution in approaching, analyzing, and then contacting the local population. We also ask for the advice of the Quorum in this matter, as this matter is diplomatic in origin – and we hope this will not be a military operation.

Let me now show you some of the decoded signals. These will be subtitled where possible, and I will leave you watching and listening for yourself, without comments. We have prepared a combination from entertainment, news and music for you, to give you a glimpse of what we have recovered so far.

Also, we plan on holding a press conference in a few days, and have some ideas as to how we can use this for the good of the fleet.

May the gods be with us, our quest could finally be at an end." Adama finished his speech, giving way to some technicians to set up a projector and screen, on which they started to show some recordings that were deemed "safe" for the Quorum, as to minimize culture shock. Among it was an episode of "I love Lucy". It turned out to be a quite interesting program showing - often comical - everyday situations in a family life, which was not that dissimilar to life on the Colonies, albeit with people having a very weird taste for clothing and hairstyles. Women tended to wear long, not very practical skirts or dresses, and the overall level of technology seemed to be very below any standard the colonials knew. This was a disappointment to everyone, but still, they had hope – technology is something that can be brought with you, if there is a place to go.

After the presentation, the audience exploded in a staccato of questions and mumbling – if this was a joke, why they were not informed sooner, the usual you would expect from the Quorum - but it settled down quickly as President Roslin made them quiet down and Adama started answering questions.

A few days later, the press conference was much of the same, only with reporters present – and the whole thing being broadcast to every ship in the fleet. Reactions were about the same as for the quorum, ranging from panic to sheer excitement – but in the end, everyone was cheerful that they finally had a place to go to, and that there might be an end to their long road to a new home.


	4. A Voyager to be found

The next few days went by without any issues, and the fleet started the long jumps toward the system that they hoped would be the home of the thirteenth tribe. Work continued on the translations, subtitling, and analysis of the recorded material, and the mood throughout the fleet was the best they have ever seen since the Colonies fell. Luckily, they recorded several weeks worth of material during their stay in orbit of the last planet they went to, as they were not able to stay in a place long enough between jumps to make new recordings, so all they had to give the public in the fleet were the recordings they already had. Still, it would last them throughout the whole trip, keeping everyone entertained and boosting morale.

"Have you seen the newest episode of that serial that is being broadcast on the fleet? The one called "I love Lucy" by the locals... it is funny, we still don't know how they call their planet.. only that it seems to be divided into several smaller countries, and that the one these broadcasts originated from is called America... anyway, back to the broadcast.. I find it fascinating how similar it seems to life in the Colonies.. but still, everything just feels... off. Like you are watching a documentary on history for a place you have never visited, only heard of..." Laura Roslin said to Bill Adama, sitting in his office and enjoying some time away from being constantly on the edge.

"You know, I find it fascinating.. family life seems to work as much as with us, only that they seem to prefer strictly monogamous relationships... and also, and this worries me – have you heard them swear? If the translation is right, one of the expressions translated to "Oh my God", singular – they seem to be monotheistic in nature. I don't know if that is only a small anomaly, or if they truly have forgotten their roots and the Lords of Kobol, but this is something that surely will not go unnoticed by the clerics – something that create a lot of troubles when we finally meet them." Adama responded.

"I noticed that too... and I already asked some of my staff to search for clues about their religious beliefs in the recordings, but so far, we don't have much. They seem to call their temples "churches", and as much as we figured, the deity you mentioned does not have a name – it is just referred to as "God", so that is quite different as well. I really hope we can keep this low for the time being, we have a lot of religious people in the fleet... " Roslin said, looking a bit worried.

"I hope you're right Laura, I don't want something minor like religion blow up our chances of forming a successful relationship with our brethren – or even start a shooting war like back before the Cylon war when the monotheistic terrorists started their campaign..." Adama said, looking worried too.

"Well, if anyone would have heard you, you'd just have made a lot of new enemies... "something minor like religion" … some people would count this as blasphemy" Roslin said, looking a bit amused by her own words.

"Well, then let's hope the people in the fleet will not hear me saying something like that, and also the people of the thirteenth tribe will understand that this is a very touchy subject and should be handled with care" Adama responded.

"So say we all. By the gods, so say we all" was the only response that came to her mind.

* * *

A few days later, the phone buzzed on Adama's wall.

"This is Adama, Colonel, what's the issue?" Adama spoke into the receiver.

"Commander, we are almost ready for our last jump. Raptors confirm that we have arrived at a very big planetary system containing at least eight planets and a lot of debris – signal traffic was through the roof as well, even though the raptor was not equipped to record or analyze any of it. We are sure that it is the source of the signals that we have been recording. We are currently calculating jump coordinates." Colonel Tigh said on the phone.

"I'll be there in five minutes, I don't want to miss this. Also, I presume President Roslin will want to be there when we jump, so please make preparations to ferry her over in a Raptor at her earliest convenience. " Adama responded.

"Aye, Commander. We're all excited and nervous up here. Come up and join the fun" Colonel Tigh said, ending the call.

Adama quickly put aside the book he was reading, and got up to get dressed. After preparing, he went to the hangar to collect Laura Roslin, and then both were on their way to CIC.

The walk felt different – they were not walking to a battle situation, but rather the one moment they and everyone else in the fleet were waiting for – and Adama just hoped that everything would turn out like they hoped. Still, he was nervous, and he noticed while entering the CIC that he was not the only one feeling like that.

The atmosphere was tense, even more so than in a battle, since that was something they trained for – this was not.

"Commander, we have calculated a jump trajectory that would put us behind one of two planetoids that orbit each other in the absolute outskirts of the solar system. It would both hide us from detection if anyone – or anything – is watching the system, and also has been confirmed to contain useful resources that we could mine to bolster our supplies. Also, it has an inclination that is different from all other bodies that we have seen in the system so far, that makes it somewhat special – and as remote as it is, I'm sure some of our scientists would love to have a closer look at that thing" Gaeta said, looking for confirmation.

"That sounds like a sound plan Mr. Gaeta, please confirm that we are following that plan." Adama said, now turning his gaze to Colonel Tigh.

"Colonel, I want every bird in the air after the jump – CAP, Raptors, standby Vipers, everything – we're going to have a thorough look around the outskirts of that system first, and then gradually try to take our exploration inwards. This is too big to risk rushing it, and from what I have heard from the report from our first recon Raptor, this system is a mess, full of debris, signal traffic, planetoids, everything you can imagine. So let's be careful out there. " Adama said.

Everyone heard the commander, and frantic preparation work throughout the ship began as soon as the commands were relayed – Vipers and Raptors getting fueled, pilots getting dressed and ready, and the signal team preparing new storage media to receive and analyze new transmissions.

"On my mark. Three. Two. One. JUMP" Adama exclaimed, no longer being able to hide his excitement.

* * *

Galactica vanished in a flash of light, just to reappear right above a small planetoid. Soon after, the fleet jumped in.

"Report!" was the first command given by Commander Adama.

"Reports coming in sir - 2 Ships missing at the moment.. no wait a minute, there they are. They jumped a few seconds late. All ships there and accounted for sir." Gaeta looked relieved.

"That was a picture perfect jump, we are right where we wanted to be. Launching all birds now" Gaeta exclaimed, bringing the whole CIC to a cheer that echoed throughout the ship. They were there – now began the hard part.

* * *

"Commander, Starbuck is requesting to take out the stealth Viper for a little joyride to scan the perimeter on her own – says she's eager to go out and that she wants to help" Tigh said, looking angry that he had to relay this request.

Starbuck had recently been in a fight – again – and therefore was supposed to be grounded, and everyone knew that – why they even let her on the phone to call the CIC was beyond him, she was ordered to help out the deck hands in the hangar. "Well", he thought, "I guess she won a favor from Petty Officer Tyrol again at pyramid... that girl is too good at that game for her own self".

"Well, I know she's grounded, but right now I want everyone out there to look for information – and possible dangers, and like it our not, Starbuck is the only pilot qualified on the stealth Viper right now. Also, she may be reckless, but she is just the pilot for the harsh weather out there." Adama said, much to the dismay of Colonel Tigh.

"Starbuck, you are go for launch. I repeat, you are go for launch. I don't have to like it, but the old man says you are good for the job, so do us all a favor and do it well – then we might get you back on active duty after you come back. Tigh out." Tigh said, hanging up the receiver.

After her Viper left the launch tube, she immediately started to fly some wild maneuvers to make herself comfortable in the seat of a Viper again, still wondering how well the call with Tigh went – usually he puts up more of a fight. "Well, either he's getting old, or he's just as excited to be here like everyone else – let's hope this place is holding up to it..." she said to herself, putting on the boosters away from the planetoid they were orbiting, outwards on a trajectory that would allow her to fly by the Heliopause of the system and take scans there. The Heliopause is a very special natural phenomenon – it is the area in a solar system where the solar wind coming from the star meets the pressure of particles coming from outside the solar system, and both tend to equalize each other, forming a sort-of barrier between the solar system and "outer space", something that is usually depicted as a system's border.

She was flying for quite a while as she noticed a small blip on DRADIS that caught her interest. It traveled with a velocity of about 12 mi/s outward from the solar system, which is something an asteroid normally tends not to do. Well, at least as far as she understood astrophysics, which admittedly was not much.

"Galactica Starbuck, I have a small object on DRADIS which seems to move in a direction outside the solar system with quite a velocity - I may not be a scientist, but in my book things don't do that all by themselves. Shall I investigate?" She said over the comm.

"Starbuck Galactica, the old man says you are cleared for an in-depth look at the object. How long will you need?" Tigh answered.

"It'll take an hour or two - this thing is fast even for Viper standards. But I can do it." she responded.

"Confirmed Starbuck, good hunting. Galactica out." Tigh said, closing the connection.

As ordered, Starbuck turned towards the strange DRADIS contact and fired her afterburner. Even at top speed it took her an hour and a half to reach the object up to visual range - but what she saw dazzled her.

"Galactica, Starbuck. I have the object in sight. It is not an asteroid, but a probe of some sort. Definitely man-made. It seems to carry a big wireless antenna facing the inner part of the solar system, and an array of antennas of some sort, I can't say what they are for. It seems to be out here for a while, it got quite a few dents and scratches, looks even worse than the Viper I usually fly. Can't register any activity on the device but a bit of decaying radioactivity. This thing seems to be dead in space. Mind if I take a souvenir?" She said over comms.

"Galactica Starbuck, this is Adama. Amazing find. Don't worry, you'll get your souvenir, I promise. We will send a recovery Raptor out to your position, just stay where you are."

Three hours later, the Raptor arrived, carrying a special set of robotic arms able to "catch" and tow the object back to Galactica.

It took them the better half of a day to do so, but at least - nothing bad happened.

No booby traps, no sudden activity within the probe - it seemed to be as Starbuck said - dead in space.


	5. What a Voyager had to tell

"Well well, what do you have for us today Starbuck" Athena said, sitting at the helm of a raptor equipped with a magnetic grappling fixture mounted on a flexible arm mainly used to latch onto debris from wreckages or to recover a damaged Viper after a battle.

"Well, I'll be frakked if I know, but this looks like some kind of primitive space probe – this big part here is definitely some kind of wireless antenna, and the stuff mounted on the booms seems to be some kind of scientific instruments – all very primitive, if you ask me. But the most puzzling part is this golden disk attached to the outside – it seems to be some kind of message, with written instructions on it. But so far I have no idea what they could mean" Starbuck said.

"We are detecting nuclear readings from that probe – while it surely is no bomb, it seems to have a nuclear power source. Definitely not fusion based... well, this is something Dr. Baltar will have a field day with" Athena responded.

After carefully checking that the connection between the Raptor and the unknown object would hold, Athena got the go-ahead and began to pull the strange craft back to the Galactica. Obviously they did it using sublight, as the changed geometry of the craft was making jump calculations highly unpredictable – and also, this way she could escort Starbuck back to Galactica, and spend some time chatting away. Even though Starbuck is sometimes considered the manliest man aboard Galactica, she still had her feminine side – which included that she liked gossip. A lot. She spent the last few weeks grounded, and that meant she was cut off from most of the usual sources for gossip as well.

Later, they tried to gently bring the probe down to the flight deck, which in itself was not an easy feat – the probe was built for space, not for sitting on a surface, so they had to erect some sort of temporary cradle to fit the probe on – a project that Chief Tyrol considered "exciting" and "finally, something new to build". Exciting as it was, it took them a while – all the while they had to effectively hover the probe in the air over the deck using the Raptor, so they could fit the cradle to the probe. Easier said than done, and after it finally worked, and the probe could be lowered into position in it's fixture, everyone was tired, proud of their work, and hoping for the shift to just end.

Gaius Baltar though was far from being tired – after he got called in to the hangar bay, he nearly hyperventilated from excitement as he saw the probe for the first time.

A few days later, Baltar had spent enough time with the machine to figure out some information about how it seemed to work – still, he was very excited about this find.

"Look at that machine! So primitive, so big – I wonder how something this unwieldy and has been brought to space in the first place! I see some kind of thruster on it, like the maneuvering system on a Viper... but that can't be used to launch something like this, especially not from the surface of a planet. Very strange... the same goes for the power system, it is something we have never seen before. It seems to convert the thermal energy produced by radioactive decay into electricity – a laughable amount of it – a concept that seems so ridiculously inefficient that it was never even considered in the Colonies. Still, it works... and it is still giving off power readings. Also, some of the systems seem to be powered still, even though we have no idea what they are doing. " Baltar explained to Commander Adama and Laura Roslin, visiting the Hangar to make themselves familiar with the strange object.

"Also, we removed the golden plate attached to analyze it – it really is copper that has been plated with gold to prevent corrosion. Also, we were able to decode some of the carvings on the front side of it – it is a quite ingenious idea if you ask me. They encoded some scientific data into the shapes and forms you see, by using the measurement of one of the most abundant atoms in the universe – hydrogen – as a baseline. After we figured that out, we could see that it also contains a star chart, telling the finder where it originated based on the distance to easily observable pulsars in the vicinity. This probe was meant to drift through space for hundreds, maybe thousands of years, to be found by someone with enough scientific understanding to decode the message – very impressive if you ask me."

Everyone looked at him, waiting for more – he cleared his throat, then continued:

"However, that was not the most interesting thing about the plaque – in the beginning, we were very curious as to what the rifling on the back side were meant for – it is a single, ongoing carving in the plaque that is dotted with small nudges – we discovered that it contains data, that can be recovered using a simple receiving arm and a needle that fits in the grove. The vibrations of the needle going up and down can be attached to a speaker, and produce audible signals – music, samples of languages. Some stuff we were able to recognize based on the FM transmissions that we collected beforehand, most of it is still unintelligible for us for now. Still, this is a marvelous artifact, and proof that the planet we are heading to is filled with scientists and engineers just like back in the Colonies." Baltar finished his monologue, waiting for everyone to grasp what he just told them.

"This is very interesting Doctor, but, as far as we were able to extract from the recordings, weren't the people of this tribe supposed to be without spaceflight? We have not heard a single mention of it in all of the broadcasts, and still, here we have a probe that, while primitive in design, traveled the whole solar system, using a propulsion method we don't even seem to recognize. To be honest, this discrepancy worries me." Adama said.

"Well, some thing you might have overlooked in your cheers of receiving the transmissions three months ago is that we are talking light speed communication here – and we jumped nearly 50 light years until we arrived in the system. This means the signals we intercepted are almost 50 years old now, predating even the first Cylon war. We don't know how fast the people in this tribe develop technologically, maybe they are just faster than development in the Colonies..." Baltar responded.

"Hmm… the one thing I take from this is that we have to be extra careful when we move around in this system – if they were able to send something this far out, they obviously have the capabilities to track and contact it as well. We might not be as safe as we think if we just fly around out here and hope no one will see us..." Adama said. He left the hangar with a wry look on his face, starting to worry again.

Further recon trips provided Galactica with not much more but the discovery of a sister probe similarly designed and built like the one they captured earlier - and a general layout of the solar system. Most planets but the inner four were gas giants or icy rocks, and therefore of no immediate interest for Galactica.

The only significant finding was that the dwarf planet which they currently orbited was rich in Tylium, but covered in a big sheet of ice. This was welcome news in the Fleet, as Tylium supplies were low as always. Soon after, the mobile refinery they had with them began work on extracting the Tylium from the planetoid. Curiously, they didn't find even traces of Tylium elsewhere in the system, even though they never dared to venture closer than the two gas giants and their moons on the outskirts of the system. Maybe they'll find more once they get closer to the star.

* * *

Back on Earth, some people at NASA wondered why, all of a sudden, they were receiving telemetry from Voyager 1 that did not make sense at all. Based on the data that got sent back, the probe abruptly changed course, and was now on it's way to Pluto... and then stopped transmitting at all.

Most people just said that it must be a technical glitch and that the computer on Voyager 1 just died, considering its age and the environment that it operated in. Some even joked that it just wants to meet its buddy New Horizon for a few beers when it gets there. And some wondered what else could have happened...

* * *

Based on recent discoveries, Adama organized a strategic meeting on how to proceed. He was no longer sure if it was such a great idea coming in for everyone to see, even though it would mean they have to wait longer until making contact. He couldn't blow this one. There is only one chance to make a first impression...

"Everyone, as you all know by now, we found man-made probes in the outskirts of this system a short while ago. They are without a doubt a product from the people of the third planet of this solar system, the ones we have been looking at in the recordings we made. We didn't expect them to be spacefaring, and that was wrong. I must admit, I felt ashamed when Dr. Baltar told me the obvious we had overlooked – that these recordings were made from transmissions that travel at light speed, and therefore were around 50 years old.

Also, right after we arrived in this system, our comms team tried to create new recordings of transmission like the ones we did before. We were quite in disbelief when we found out that they are still transmitting – a lot – but, that we are no longer able to decode the signals. They seem to have been given up analog transmissions almost entirely. We were able to decode a few signals, mainly of the audio-only kind, but most of the signals are at a loss to us right now. Sadly, this also means that we can't get more insight in what awaits us over there from out here.

I presume some of you suspected something like this happening, but I didn't expect them to develop as fast as they apparently do. For me, this was something that completely fell off my DRADIS at that time. Worse, we have no idea how old these probes are, and how much further they may have developed in the meantime. The old plan, to travel to the third planet with the fleet directly, is abolished.

Currently, the plan is to take the fleet into orbit of the fourth planet, a red rocky world with an atmosphere that could once even been able to sustain life, and take our time from there. It would be a good position to take closer readings from the third planet, maybe even using optical telescopes, and should still be safe for us, if we try to stay in the planet's shadow for most of the time.

Still, I won't risk this until we checked out the planet – since raptors are quite big and I fear they could be detected, I'll be sending Starbuck in the stealth Viper for this mission. Any objections?" Adama said.

"Well, you know what I think about Starbuck... but, she is the only one who is currently trained to fly her. Just make sure she doesn't get cocky this time, and tries to keep stealth her top priority." Tigh said.

Everyone agreed, having seen the probe first hand and knowing that they had to keep their presence unknown for now to formulate a plan how to contact the planet without spooking everyone.

Shortly after, Starbuck was out in a Viper again, sent on a long range reconnaissance mission to the fourth planet – which was a bit dull, based on the fact that the Viper didn't have any jump capability.

Still, since the distance was too great to go all sublight about it in a small fighter, a small civilian vessel from the fleet jumped her in her cargo hold to the "shadow" side of the planet, still far enough away to keep visibility to a minimum. After dropping her off, the ship jumped back to the fleet, not wanting to compromise the mission by it's lack of stealth.

Starbuck traveled the rest of the distance via her sublight engines, taking orbit around the planet shortly after. She was on her own now – the fleet was several days of travel away, and even a wireless message took hours to reach the fleet.

After a while in orbit, her scanners picked something up – wireless traffic. Upon closer inspection, it seemed that there were several objects on the planet's surface communicating with orbiting satellites, leading her to put the Viper back into passive scanning mode only to minimize her EM profile.

Continuing her scans, she was able to make out one of the satellites in orbit – it looked quite a lot more modern than the probe she found the last time. Power generation seemed different as well, since she was not getting any nuclear readings at all this time. Her curiosity got the better of her, and she decided to move in to a few meters range – she wanted to see this thing with her own eyes, take as much pictures and readings as she could, and then return to the fleet. So she closed in to the underside of the satellite, not wanting to block the transmitter that was directed back at the third planet, or any of the scientific instruments that she was able to discern. What she did not recognize was a small protrusion from the underside of the probe, a surface-imaging camera. A camera that her Viper was now blocking, without her noticing.

After she was done taking her pictures, she boosted back from the planet to open space, waiting at specific coordinates for her pick up to arrive – she felt good, but sadly, the plan to use the planet as temporary base was done for – the thirteeners got there first.

* * *

Back on earth, Thomas Felger, a scientist at NASA, was going through the daily download from MRO. He was bored and wanted to go home – he had a rough day, and his mind was constantly wandering away from his job at hand. An easy job, to roughly look through the incoming pictures to pre-sort them for analysis. Still, he would rather be in his bed right now, or at least watch some nice Sci-Fi on TV. Rocks, more rocks, oh look , a dune, more rocks … he was not paying much attention until he saw a series of pictures that looked at first glance as if the sensor was damaged. They were almost completely black, and he was fearing the worst – that the camera had broken – until he saw pictures that had a perfect view of the surface of Mars again. Before calling in anyone else, he started analyzing the black frames – and found areas that moved in between shots, until he stumbled upon a picture that he could not understand. Instead of being almost totally black, it contained a tiny piece of marking that looked like the writing on the side of a plane – it was dark gray on black, but it was there.

Still, he felt like he was dreaming – what was he seeing here? And – did he actually want to tell someone about it? He was known for his wandering mind, this is why he got the dullest part of the job in the first place. He has to tell someone about this – but what if it turns out to be nothing? He would have given everyone another reason to make fun of him… While he was thinking, he was checking over the pictures again, trying to decide what to do.

* * *

Authors note:

I know there will be some space geeks out there that will totally take apart my descriptions of the probes, orbiters, satellites and missions in general that have been launched – please bear with me that I have to shuffle some real-world facts about when which mission happened or what technology is still in use around a bit to make the stuff I want to write possible.

As for Starbuck showing up on these pictures, well, some would call her positioning her Blackbird directly in front of the camera reckless, but let's just assume that she didn't see it because she was disrupted by the multiple rovers on the ground communicating with the satellite in orbit, spamming the EM detectors and forcing her to look more for electronic than optical systems on the satellite.

Also, if you think the Colonials are a bit naive about being detected or how they treat this situation in general – well, I have to give the Earthers something to work with, or this would be a very one-sided story...


End file.
